Shillong, Mar 10 : A group explored 11 new caves and mapped 9.5 km of new cave passage during a 18-day expedition in Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills district.
Twenty one cavers, including some from UK, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Germany and a commander of the Indian Navy, participated in the 19th edition of the International Cave Expedition that focused on the caving areas of Umkyrpong and Kseh.
"A total of four partially explored caves were further explored and eleven new caves explored. Information was collected for about nine new caves. A total of 9.5 km of new cave passage was explored and mapped during the expedition from February 7-24," Meghalaya Adventurers Association general secretary and noted caver Brian D Kharpran Daly, who led the expedition, said in a statement today.
With the new discoveries, the total of caves in Meghalaya is now 1,304, of which 811 are explored and 364 km of cave passage mapped, he said.
The cavers found that the Krem Tyngheng-Diengjem cave system extended up to 21,250 m ?" one of the longest in the Indian sub-continent.
Ancient relic passages were found in the Krem Shalong cave, one of which is extremely beautiful with a profusion of gypsum formations, he said.
"The expedition team included two biologists who recorded and documented 16 species of bats and 100 species of birds," Daly said.
Meghalaya is reported to have thousands of caves, most of which have remained unexplored and many of them are unique in nature. Most of the caves, concentrated in the Jaintia hills, are not just tourist attractions but also repositories of life forms that are presumed to have been lost elsewhere.
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